Jun
21
Department of Children and Families admits “major mistake” in failing to protect toddler
Filed Under crime, single stories, social services |
Originally published in The Palm Beach Post on Saturday, June 21, 2008.
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
RIVIERA BEACH - By the time Vincent Clark was charged with felony neglect in the drug-overdose death of his 21-month-old son, Darius, he had been accused of attacking women at least six times.
When Clark pistol-whipped Darius’ mother, Toccara Nobles, in March, workers at the state Department of Children and Families were concerned enough to designate the case “high-risk.”
That meant that under Florida law, department attorneys were required to ask the court for permission to supervise Darius.
The DCF made a “major mistake” when it failed to do so five weeks before Darius died, Administrator Perry Borman said Friday in response to questions from The Palm Beach Post.
Department leaders say they did not do enough to protect the toddler, who was found dead in his bed in late April with enough drugs in his system to kill an adult.
“We ought to learn as much from this case as humanly possible,” DCF Assistant Secretary George Sheldon said.
Among those lessons: When the DCF leaves children in a troubled home, workers may need to visit the family as often as once a day. They also must ensure that domestic violence victims have the help they need to leave their abusers, Sheldon said.
State and local DCF leaders say they will make changes as a result of Darius’ death, including efforts to keep better track of the help parents are receiving.
A bill awaiting Gov. Charlie Crist’s signature also would give the DCF the power to seek court orders to remove a dangerous parent from a household, rather than relying on a victim to do so.
John Walsh, head of the Foster Children’s Project of the Legal Aid Society in Palm Beach County, said Darius’ case is like others he has seen since the state began pushing to lessen the removal of children from homes.
“Maybe it is wanting to believe that families should be together so badly that you ignore the obvious signs of danger,” Walsh said. “You want to believe that the mother will actually keep him out of the home, when in a domestic violence situation, her word is worth almost nothing.”
Since January 2007, the DCF has reduced the number of children living apart from their birth parents by 18percent. Secretary Bob Butterworth has set a goal of a 50percent reduction, saying many former foster children have told him they would have been much better off with their birth parents.
But when children are left at home, Butterworth said this year, the DCF needs to offer supervision and intense counseling to parents struggling with domestic violence or substance abuse.
Nobles didn’t get that kind of help in dealing with Clark, whom police describe as a drug dealer who has been repeatedly arrested on charges of violence against women.
In 2003, Riviera Beach police said he smashed the windows at two homes because a woman would not come out to see him. In 2004, he allegedly shattered the window of another girlfriend’s car, just missing their 6-month-old baby. The same year, police said he punched a woman in front of their 2-year-old child.
In 2005, police charged him with pulling a gun on a woman, calling her a “bitch” and threatening to shoot her.
But he spent little time in jail because the women refused to testify against him. In 2007, he punched Nobles in the face. She told police she would prosecute and seek a restraining order, but didn’t.
Even so, DCF attorneys decided after the pistol-whipping in March that they could protect Darius by getting Nobles to sign a safety plan saying she would get a restraining order against Clark and attend counseling.
Five weeks after that decision, the toddler was dead, with oxycodone and cocaine in his system. Though it is not known how the toddler got the drugs, Nobles had let Clark spend the night.
In the weeks before the child’s death, DCF employees designated the case a “red flag,” meaning it deserved their highest attention. But though they contacted the mother by phone, they didn’t visit her home between March 8 and April 21. And they failed to find out that Nobles had skipped her hearing for the restraining order.
“We became convinced that this mother was sincere in seeking a restraining order,” Sheldon said this week. “Should we have followed up? No question.”
Walsh said abused women often sign safety plans immediately after the violence, when the police are there and they know the DCF could take the children.
“Of course you are going to tell them anything, and probably even believe it yourself. … Is it true? No, of course not,” Walsh said. “I can’t tell you how many cases we’ve seen like that.”
Richard Wexler, a national advocate who urges foster care systems to keep children home with their parents, also sees problems with the case.
It can be extremely difficult for women to leave their abusers, he wrote this week in an e-mail.
“So while Toccara Nobles may well have meant it when she signed the service plan, it’s easy to imagine that resolve crumbling in the face of manipulation or threats from an abuser,” Wexler wrote. “DCF was not sufficiently on guard against that possibility. The case got a red-flag staffing but was treated with only yellow-flag urgency.”
Borman said he plans to make changes as a result of Darius’ case. He hopes to set up an electronic system that could automatically remind investigators to follow up on referrals to services such as domestic violence counseling.
The DCF investigates about 900 reports of child abuse and neglect a month in Palm Beach County, Borman said, taking the children in only about 5 percent of cases. He said the state needs to do a better job of tracking what it does for the others.
Darius’ death will not deter the state from its goal of keeping more families together, Sheldon said.
“But what it does mean is that we have to be especially vigilant to make sure services get to that child,” he said.
Staff writer Rochelle E.B. Gilken contributed to this story.
A family at risk
> Vincent Clark, 29, is a felon with a history of drug charges who was accused of attacking women at least six times, according to Riviera Beach police records. He is charged with felony neglect in the death of his son.
> Toccara Nobles, 25, had no history of felony arrests before she was charged with neglect in Darius’ death. She backed away from her promise to get a restraining order against Clark and allowed him to sleep over the night Darius died.
> Darius Clark was 21 months old when Nobles and Clark discovered him dead in their bed on April 21. The medical examiner found he had enough drugs in his system to kill an adult.
Copyright 2008 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
June 21, 2008 Saturday
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